Massacre in El Peten

Officials now say at least 29 individuals were killed on a coconut ranch in the Northern Guatemalan province of Peten, their bound, decapitated, and tortured bodies discovered early Sunday. AP calls the mass killings “one of the worst massacres” since the country’s nearly four-decade long civil war came to an end in 1996. Similar comments from police spokesman Donald Gonzalez who referred to the murders Sunday as the “worst massacre we have seen in modern times.”

The LA Times says the killings were carried out by a “small army” of some 200 gunmen who, according to witnesses, arrived at the ranch on buses but have otherwise been unidentified.

The victims all appear to have been laborers on the Peten ranch where they were found. Police are investigating whether or not the mass killings are connected to the Saturday death of Haroldo Leon, the brother of late Guatemalan drug boss Juan Jose “Juancho” Leon, himself killed in 2008. The Zetas, have long been suspected of being involved in the latter’s murder, which is said to have allowed the Mexican drug gang to gain control over transshipment routes in neighboring Alta Verapaz.

Officials found one wounded survivor of the massacre – an individual who says he evaded murder by pretending to have been killed. No details have yet been released about what specifically that individual is said to have witnessed.

More Spanish-language coverage from Guatemala’s El Periódico, highlighting the suspected relationship between Sunday’s massacre and the recent killing of Heraldo León.

This weekend’s bullet points:

· In Port-au-Prince Saturday, former pop singer Michel Martelly was sworn in as Haiti’s next president. AP reports while the Miami Herald looks at the various challenges the new president faces. The outgoing head of Minustah, Edmond Mulet says Martelly inherits a “failed state,” adding that in the coming days Martelly is likely to discover that “the state institutions, ministries, government agencies that should implement the vision and plans of the new government cannot deliver.” On Sunday, those close to the new president said the first major personnel announcement would be nominating businessman Daniel-Gerard Rouzier as the country’s next prime minister. Haiti’s parliament must approve the nomination. The prime minister will also serve (with UN special envoy Bill Clinton) as co-chair of Haiti's Interim Recovery Commission.

· Mexican immigration officials said Sunday they are prepared to subject migration agents to psychological, drug, and lie detector tests as part of a new effort to combat corruption in the country’s National Immigration Institute (INM). At a press conference Sunday, National Immigration Institute Commissioner Salvador Beltran del Rio said 40 agents are currently being investigated for a variety of abuses – this after the dismissal of seven regional immigration directors late last week. AP reports.

· The number of bodies at a mass grave site in the northern Mexico state of Durango jumped again over the weekend to 218, making it the largest such grave to have been discovered thus far in the country, according to AP.

· In the Mexican state of Oaxaca, AP says violence “motivated by an electoral dispute between indigenous communities” has left at least eight dead. The incident occurred near the town of Santiago Choapan.

· The New York Times profiles Mexican poet and anti-drug war organizer Javier Sicilia. According to the Times, Sicilia has “achieved what others have failed to do” in provoking “serial public responses from the Calderón administration” about the government’s prosecution of the drug wars. Calderón met with Sicilia privately one week ago, the Times reports. According to Sicilia, the Mexican president admitted in the meeting that he had “made a mistake” while adding “I can’t go back now.” Meanwhile, CNN reports that Sicilia and others are now in the process of planning a follow-up demonstration to last week’s anti-drug war march from Cuernavaca to DF. The demonstration is set for June 10 in Ciudad Juarez. The plans come as the Calderon government announced Thursday it would be sending hundreds of new troops to the border state of Tamaulipas in the coming days.

· Major protests against a planned hydroelectric dam in Southern Chile brought some 30,000 demonstrators to the streets of the Chilean capital of Santiago over the weekend. BBC Mundo reports that as many as 70 individuals were arrested during the demonstrations. A new poll shows that nearly ¾ of Chileans oppose the dam project.

· AP reports that a new effort to declassify US intelligence documents related to Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship has failed in the US House. An amendment re-proposed by New York Democratic congressman Maurice Hinchey, calling for the U.S. intelligence agencies to declassify all of their files on Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship, was rejected in a 214-194 vote Friday. A similar bill proposed by Hinchey in 1999 aided in the release of similar intelligence files on the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, the wire reports.

· In Uruguay, the left-leaning Frente Amplio coalition decided during a party plenary Saturday that it would go ahead with a contentious parliamentary vote later this week about whether or not to annul the country’s 1986 amnesty law. The so-called “Ley de Caducidad” continues to protect human rights violators from prosecution for abuses committed during the country’s 1973-1985 dictatorship. Notably, the decision to hold the vote was opposed by the country’s President, José Mujica, vice president Danilo Astori, and former FA president Tabaré Vázquez, all of whom fear the issue could cause irreparable divisions in the coalition. Uruguay’s two opposition parties have long opposed annulling the law. Mercopress reports in English; Uruguay’s El País in Spanish.

· Amnesty International released its 2011 annual report last week. The Americas section can be linked to here.

· In Ecuador, it looks increasingly like all ten of the referendum questions voted on last week and supported by President Rafael Correa will be approved. Current vote tallies available here as vote totaling continues.

· Two new polls from Ipsos and CPI in Peru show Keiko Fujimori continuing to extend her slim lead over Ollanta Humala before a June 5 runoff. The former has Fujimori obtaining 51.1% against Humala’s 48.9% while the latter poll shows Fujimori at 52.9% compared to Humala’s 47.1%. AP also reports on the most recent addition to Ms. Fujimori’s campaign team: former NYC mayor and one-time Republican presidential contender, Rudy Giuliani. The wire says Fujimori announced over the weekend that Giuliani was advising the campaign on citizen security issues and would be coming to Peru briefly sometime over the next few days.

· Finally, the New York Times front-page report Sunday on Blackwater founder Erik Prince’s new mercenary army in the United Arab Emirates has Latin American implications. According to the Times, an unspecified number of Colombians are among the 800 or so mercenaries who have been trained by retired American soldiers and veterans of the German and British special operations units and the French Foreign Legion employed by Prince’s new company, “Reflex Responses,” or “R2.” More on the Colombia-specifics from Colombia Reports. For other articles in recent years on itinerant guns-for-hire from Colombia, see the AP and CNN on Colombian mercenaries appearing in post-coup Honduras, as well as US-trained Colombian military and police officials working for Blackwater in Iraq, as reported by the LA Times and Mother Jones in 2005 and 2008, respectively.

Mexico Dismisses Top Immigration Officials

Just days after a group of recently rescued Central American migrants identified six Mexican immigration officers as the perpetrators of their kidnappings and their eventual hand-off to criminal gangs in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, Mexico’s National Immigration Institute (INM) announced Thursday it has fired seven top migration officials. The individuals include the director of migration operations in the state of Tamaulipas as well as individuals holding similar posts in six other Mexican states – Mexico state, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Tabasco, and Veracruz.

The six lower-level agents fingered by the group of abductees rescued in Tamaulipas were also arrested earlier in the week.

In the state of Oaxaca, where many of the 40+ Central American migrants abducted last December remain missing, Alejandro Solalinde, a Catholic priest who runs a migrant shelter in there and helped organize last week’s anti-drug march from Cuernavaca to Mexico City, said Thursday’s dismissals were little more than a “Band-Aid” over more systemic problems. In an interview with Milenio Television yesterday (quoted in the AP’s coverage), Farther Solalinde said immigrant agents must be subject not only to dismissal but also criminal investigations.

A statement from Mexico’s Interior Ministry said the firings of state migration directors this week was just the beginning of a major immigration overhaul that would also include the removal of those migration agents believed to be involved in corruption. It looks like such decisions, however, will only be made after new state directors are appointed.

According to AP, at least 168 of the immigration institute's 5,000 employees have been fired or suspended since September for alleged abuse and corruption. At least 11,333 foreign migrants were reported kidnapped between April and September in 2010, most of them Central Americans, according to a recent report by Mexico's National Commission of Human Rights. More coverage of the Thursday announcement from the LA Times.

Today’s bullet points:

· After a number of reports from the IMF over the last two years praised Latin American governments for steps taken to prevent the Southern spread of an economic crisis, the Fund this week says the region could be on the brink a “full-blown crisis” if governments do not cut public spending and take measure to ensure monetary stability. At a conference of central bankers in Brazil, the IMF’s director for the Western Hemisphere, Nicolas Eyzaguirre, had particularly sharp words for Brazil, saying the government must act to “rein in the economy” or else its economic success “could end in tears.” Reuters calls the former Chilean finance minister’s words “some of the strongest warnings to date by a senior official of the near-term dangers posed by Latin America's recent run of prosperity.”

· In other economic news, Dow Jones reports on the World Trade Organization’s decision to accept a Brazilian proposal to begin a two-year study on the relationship between trade and currency valuation. According to Roberto Azevedo, Brazil's representative at the WTO, the decision is an historic one, as it’s apparently the first time the WTO has ever agreed to discuss the relationship between currency and trade. Brazil has blamed indirect and direct currency manipulation in both the US and China for the appreciation of the Brazilian real.

· Nation contributor Dave Zirin has a very critical up at The Nation’s website on Rio de Janeiro’s construction push ahead of the Olympic Games and World Cup. Meanwhile, ESPN publishes a long story on concerns over gangs and violence in the run-up to both international sporting events.

· Honduran President Pepe Lobo says he will order the Interior Ministry to investigate any potential assassination plots against former president Mel Zelaya. Just one day after an aide to Zelaya said the exiled former president was preparing to return home this month, Zelaya’s wife, Xiomara Castro suggested her husband remained worried about his personal safety, should he return. The former president of Honduran Supreme Court, Jorge Rivera Avilés, called claims of an assassination plot “speculation.” In the Guardian, meanwhile, Viviana Krsticevic, executive director of the Center for Justice and Law has an opinion on Honduras worth reading today. Krsticevic criticizes the very judiciary Jorge Rivera Avilés once headed, arguing that Honduras’s readmission to the OAS should not occur until “an autonomous, unbiased and efficient judicial system” is installed which can “ensure that officials who took part in the coup are replaced” and “rule of law” restored.

· After being acquitted of embezzling $15 million in defense funds earlier this week, former Guatemalan president Alfonso Portillo has begun to fight his pending extradition to the US on a separate set of money laundering charges. AFP with coverage.

· In Chile, some 20,000 students and teachers marched Thursday in the capital of Santiago, demanding increased state funds and resources for public education. Similar protests were held in other major cities around the country. Nearly 70 individuals were arrested during the protests, some of the largest student demonstrations since President Sebastian Pinera took office. La Tercera reports.

· In Cuba, both a Cuban medical examiner and the family of Juan Wilfredo Soto say the late dissident showed no signs of physical beating after he was detained on May 5. Soto, who suffered from other health problems, including diabetes and heart issues, died shortly after his detention last week in the central city of Santa Clara. Dissidents continue to claim his death was the result of an excessive use of force by Cuban security officers, despite the statements from medical officials and Soto’s family. AP reports.

· Uruguay’s La República and El País report on alternatives being weighed by Frente Amplio lawmakers this week re: the country’s 1986 amnesty law, the Ley de Caducidad. After the Uruguayan Senate voted to overturn the law one month ago, the parliament’s lower chamber must decide next week whether it too will make a similar decision. The decision has divided the Broad Front ruling coalition, a number of whose members say voting to overturn the law would go against the will of voters. Uruguayans rejected annulling the law for a second time in a national plebiscite in 2009.

· The Miami Herald reports on this weekend’s inauguration of new Haitian President Michel Martelly while AP reports on the silence of Jean-Bertrand Aristide since his return back to Haiti in March.

· David Cole at The Nation on the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives’ decision to give its first annual Human Rights Activism award to Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge who famously sought to hold Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet accountable for human rights abuses in Chile but has since come under serious fire for opening an investigation into human rights crimes committed by the Franco dictatorship in his native Spain. Garzón also speaks with Democracy Now.

· And finally, both Americas Quarterly and NACLA have new issues out, both looking at hemispheric power, Brazil. Among the highlights in the former, some “Reflections on Brazil’s Global Rise,” by former Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim and a roundtable on “The New Brazil in the Changing Hemisphere.” In the latter, commentary by and an interview with eminent Brazilian sociologist and CLACSO executive secretary, Emir Sader about current President Dilma Rousseff and the foreign policy of Lula da Silva.

Zelaya Preparing to Head Home?

An aide to Mel Zelaya says the exiled former Honduran president plans to return home sometime within the next month. Confidant Rasel Tomé said in an interview with the AP Wednesday that Zelaya has “the will and desire to return to his homeland” after a Honduran appeals court dropped all remaining corruption charges against the former president last week. The deputy coordinator of the National Popular Resistance Front (FNRP), Juan Barahona, says that the precise date of Zelaya’s return is still under consideration but added it’s expected to come before the June 5 General Assembly of the OAS.

The move would appear to open the door for Honduras’s return to the OAS, something for which the US has been lobbying for quite some time. “Now that the obstacles to former President Zelaya’s return to Honduras have been removed, I am confident that we will soon welcome Honduras back as a full member of the inter-American system,” remarked Sec. of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday, speaking at the 41^st Conference on the Americas in Washington.

But there remain doubts about whether, in fact, the Zelaya saga, which began with the ouster of the democratically-elected leader in June 2009, is a closed book. After receiving word that charges had been dropped last week, Zelaya indicated that, should he return, he’d still be subject to intense “persecution” in his native Honduras. Today’s El Heraldo suggests that much. According to the conservative paper there’s nothing to stop Honduran prosecutors from resurrecting the corruption charges against Mel Zelaya at some point in the future.

Today’s bullet points:

· Human rights concerns in Honduras continue to extend beyond Mel Zelaya. In northern Honduras, two gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a journalist outside his home in the city of Morazan Tuesday night. Reports indicate Medina, 35, was followed home by two men on a motorcycle after his evening television show. At least one of his colleagues says the murder stems from his work as a reporter – which included recent reports critical of the Honduran national police and private security firms hired by major landowners in the region. Medina’s brother adds that police forces in the area refused to escort the ambulance carrying Medina to the hospital. AP reports. Earlier in the week, Latin America News Dispatch posted an excellent, comprehensive report on the rising number of Honduran journalists killed over the past 18 months. Of the ten journalists killed during that time period (before Medina’s murder this week, which was #11), seven are said to have been known members of the Honduran Resistance. That fact makes violence against journalists in Honduras particularly unique in a region already considered to be one of the most dangerous for reporters. Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, quoted by LAND: “In other parts of Latin America where violence against the press is endemic – Mexico, for example –it’s tied to drug trafficking. In Honduras, at least as far as CPJ can determine, the violence against the press appears to have a political dimension. That’s an extremely alarming development for the entire region.”

· In neighboring El Salvador, community radio journalists at Radio Victoria in the department of Cabanas say they have received new threats from a death squad that has targeted the organization for a half-decade. The radio station has opposed mining projects in the region, and in 2009, two environmentalists connected to the station were killed. The organization currently receives police protection because of the incident, according to the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. Amnesty International, in a new press release, demands Salvadoran authorities increase their protection of Radio Victoria’s staff and “launch an independent, thorough and impartial investigation” into the most recent threats.

· Also in El Salvador on Tuesday, representatives of Central American governments agreed to solicit the international community for new economic and technological support, totaling just over $950 million, in an attempt to bolster a new regional anti-crime/anti-drug plan. SICA Secretary General Daniel Aleman tells AP the plan and accompanying financial request will be discussed with the European Union later next week. For his part, Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez highlights the new four-pronged approach to regional security based on prevention, criminal prosecution, re-insertion, and re-habilitation.

· Earlier in the week, Costa Rica and Nicaragua agreed to new bilateral cooperation against organized crime. Insight Crime and Confidencial report on the details.

· In Caracas today, Latin American energy and oil ministers are set to meet for the second of multiple planning meetings scheduled before the July summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). Telesur reports, noting today’s meetings on the integration of energy networks in the region will coincide with a a meeting of Petrocaribe member states. Interestingly, it also comes on the heels of a new energy woos in the host country. Earlier this week, Venezuela’s Energy Ministry announced a new national rationing plan that will cut off power for three hours a day in 19 of the country's 23 states. The most recent blackouts have been caused by failures in transmission lines, according to the government. Critics contend the government has not done enough to invest new electricity projects. BBC reports.

· While Hugo Chavez was forced to cancel what would have been his first bilateral meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff this week because of a “wounded knee,” Venezuela’s foreign minister Nicolas Maduro did meet with his counterpart, Antonio Patriota in Brasilia. El Universal reports on the beginning of a new deal which will see increased participation of Brazilian construction firms in Venezuela’s ambitious national plan housing plan. Speaking from Venezuela, Hugo Chavez also extended an invitation to Lula da Silva to attend the July CELAC summit in Caracas.

· In Brazil, AP says the Brazilian Senate has approved a new measure that will significantly increase payments it makes to neighboring Paraguay for excess energy produced by the country’s bi-national Itaipu dam. The changes, finalized Wednesday, will increase the amount Paraguay receives annually for its share of energy sold to Brazil from $120 million to $360 million. Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo says the new funds will go toward agrarian reform.

· Reporting from Brazil’s Northeast, the Washington Post examines the Brazilian government’s attempt to eradicate extreme poverty. Government officials are expected to roll-out the details of a new anti-poverty program, “Brazil Without Poverty,” in the coming weeks. The program will expand health, education and cash-transfer programs and direct increased development aid to some of the country’s most impoverished regions. Brazil’s Minister of Social Development, Tereza Campello, calls the new initiatives “strategic decisions for redistributing wealth” by “promoting big works in regions where poverty was concentrated.”

· The flipside of the “development-based” anti-poverty strategy can be seen in reporting from the New York Times today. The paper covers debates in the Brazilian Congress about whether or not to amend the country’s 1934 Forest Code so as to ease restrictions on development in parts of the country’s protected forests.

· IPS reports on new attempts by Mercosur member states Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina to curb foreign land speculation. All three are weighting measures that would impose new “limits” on how much rural property foreign companies or citizens can hold. The moves are motivated by concerns over food sovereignty. However, according to the report, none of the plans under consideration proposes to “ban land sales to private or public foreign capital, nor to regulate land use, nor to repossess land that has already been sold.”

· Latin America News Dispatch on statements Wednesday from Senate Finance Committee Chair, Max Baucus (D-MT), who says he is pushing for passage of the Colombia FTA (along with Panama and South Korea FTAs) in June. Also worth browsing through, a new policy brief prepared by Kevin Gallagher on concerns over what the signing of an FTA with the US could mean for Colombia’s ability to regulate in-flows of speculative financial capital.

· In Haiti, election officials announced Wednesday they are reversing all but four of 19 legislative races contested by the international community after results from a second-round of balloting were announced last month. Wednesday’s changes, says the AP, redistributed seats away from outgoing President Rene Preval’s INITE party and toward a number of lesser-known parties. The US Embassy still seems dissatisfied with the changes, saying the three seats which will still end up going to INITE should have gone to other candidates. New president Michel Martelly takes office Saturday.

· In Cuba, the Miami Herald reports on USAID democracy promotion programs on the island, which continue to be funded to the tune of $20 million and are the subject of on-going scrutiny and criticism in Havana.

· New poll numbers in Peru show Keiko Fujimori extending her tight lead over Ollanta Humala, 40.6% to 37.6%, according to a new Datum poll. Peru’s La Republica reports on a new anti-Fujimori human rights campaign, “Fujimori Nunca Más,” launched this week by the country’s Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (CNDDHH). And Washington Post columnist Jackson Diehl writes up a recent conversation he had with former presidential contender (and ex-president) Alejandro Toledo about round-two voting in Peru.

Setbacks for CICIG's Anti-Impunity Struggle

On Monday, former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo was acquitted of embezzlement charges in a 2-1 decision by a three-person panel of Guatemalan judges. The New York Times describes the decision this morning as a major “setback” for the country’s UN-backed anti-impunity commission, CICIG, which had helped carry out the investigation of the former president, extradited back to Guatemala in 2008 after fleeing to Mexico (by way of El Salvador). Portillo was accused of aiding in the illegal transfer of some $15 million to the National Defense Ministry.

According to Guatemala’s El Periodico, former ministers of defense and public finances, Eduardo Arévalo and Manuel Maza, were also acquitted in the Guatemalan court’s Monday decision.

Nonetheless, Portillo, the leader of Guatemala from 2000 to 2004, still faces extradition to the US. Federal prosecutors in the state of New York say the former president used American banks to launder tens of millions of embezzled dollars.

On Tuesday CICIG, headed by former Costa Rican Attorney General Francisco Dall’Anese, said it would assist in any potential appeal against the former president and his associates. As quoted in the Times, the commission also expressed its disappointment, saying the decision “reflects real state of justice in Guatemala.”

That statement was followed by more disappointing news late Tuesday when, in a separate Guatemalan court ruling, all charges against the country’s director of prisons, Alejandro Giammattei were also dropped. As AP reports this morning, Giammattei was one of 19 people accused of planning the murder of seven inmates during a 2007 uprising at the country’s Pavon prison, as well as the alleged execution of three inmates who escaped from the prison in 2005. Former interior minister, Carlos Vielmann has also been charged in the case but his extradition from Spain remains pending. CICIG has accused Vielmann, Giammettei, and a handful of other former officials of collaborating with organized criminal groups who carried out the 2005 and 2007 prison killings.

Today’s bullet points:

· There’s a great deal more out today about the allegedly new information published in the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ (IISS) recent publication produced from late FARC commander Raul Reyes’ infamous laptops. AP highlights information alleging members of then-candidate Rafael Correa’s presidential campaign solicited funds from the FARC and that Correa was “aware of the solicitations.” Unsurprisingly, Correa denied those allegations on Tuesday, calling them “absolutely false.” Reuters reports more on what the new publication alleges about Venezuela-FARC links. At a presentation of the book Tuesday IISS’s Nigel Inkster, described the archive – specifically the story yesterday about alleged assassination plans discussed by Chavez government officials and the FARC – as “tantalizing but ultimately unproven suggestions.” Like Correa, the Venezuelan government, through its Embassy in the UK, reiterated their rejection of the authenticity of the FARC files Tuesday, calling them “unreliable” in a statement released Tuesday. In the Guardian, Greg Grandin and Miguel Tinker Salas offer a similar opinion. Meanwhile, perhaps the most interesting reaction of all has been that of Juan Manuel Santos’s government in Colombia. As reported by El Tiempo, the government of the man who, as Alvaro Uribe’s defense minister in 2008, carried out the strike against Reyes in Ecuador and then apparently recovered his computers, said Tuesday that it will join its neighbors, Ecuador and Venezuela, in “turning the page” on the entire matter. Vice President Angelino Garzón says the goal of the Santos government right now is to “strengthen its relations” with Venezuela and Ecuador while foreign minister Maria Angela Holguín said the government hopes the dossier does not “damage the path” currently being traveled by Colombia and its neighbors.

· The vote count in Ecuador goes on after last weekend’s referendum. While just 51% of the total votes have been tallied thus far, the Miami Herald this morning highlights the fact that two of the most controversial referendum questions – one on media regulation and another that would allow the government to create a commission to restructure the judiciary over the course of the next 18 months – are in jeopardy of not being approved. Both pollsters close to the government and Ecuador Gallup affiliate, Cedatos, have predicted the government would win on all ten questions, and in a video posted on the government’s website on Tuesday, Correa maintained that would still be the case once votes from provinces that have been traditional Correa-strongholds were finally tallied.

· More on last weekend’s anti-drug war protests from journalist Kristin Bricker at Upside Down World and CIP Americas Program director Laura Carlsen in The Nation.

· In the northern Mexico state of Durango, BBC Mundo reports that the number of bodies at a mass grave there has jumped to 180 over the last week – a number almost identical to the San Fernando graves in Tamaulipas where 183 bodies have been discovered. The report says some of the bodies have been there for three or four years while others appear to have been buried in just the last few months.

· Earlier this week the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) called on the Honduran state to give physical protection to former human rights commissioner Leo Valladares and his family, after on-going death threats and reports of being surveilled. Valladares personal office was recently broken into and ransacked, says El Heraldo.

· Also in Honduras, a group of Honduran teachers suspended from their jobs for going on strike last month now say will begin an indefinite hunger strike in front of the National Congress. Red Morazánica de Información reports.

· In Argentina, BBC on the arrest of three former policeman involved in the participating in late 1970s “death flights,” one of which involved throwing French nun Leonie Duquet and human rights activist Azucena Villaflor from a plane into the Rio de la Plata in 1977.

· In Uruguay, AP says there are new doubts about whether or not a controversial decision to annul Uruguay’s 1986 amnesty law will pass the lower chamber of the Uruguayan parliament. At least two Frente Amplio deputies now say they will vote against annulling the “ley de caducidad.” A vote on the matter – approved by the Senate one month ago – is currently set for next Thursday.

· In Chile, The Guardian on a new plan to build a $7 billion hydroelectric dam in Southern Patagonia and the opposition that decision is likely to be met with from environmental groups.

· In Brazil, Reuters with more on the claims of rights violations against favela residents in Rio as the city prepares for Olympic and World Cup infrastructure upgrades. Reuters: “Both Amnesty International and a United Nations rapporteur have condemned Brazil over evictions related to World Cup and Olympic building work, a potential embarrassment for centre-left President Dilma Rousseff who has vowed to eliminate dire poverty in Latin America's largest economy.”

· IPS reports on the public release of Cuba’s new economic guidelines (“Lineamientos,” available here as PDF) published by the Cuban Communist Party on Monday. Among the issues in the document which has been receiving most attention: a statement that Cuban authorities will “study a policy to facilitate travel abroad by Cubans as tourists.” According to IPS, the document also places particular emphasis on pursuing regional integration as a “strategic objective.”

· From Mercopress, new UNASUR Secretary General Maria Emma Mejia on the goal of making South America an integrated “continent of peace” by 2020.

· Venezuela’s El Universal interviews the early favorite to be the Venezuelan opposition’s presidential candidate in 2012, Miranda Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski.

· US President Barack Obama traveled to El Paso, Texas Monday to launch what looks like a new push for immigration reform. The New York Times and BBC report.

· And Foreign Policy with still-image video highlighting the capture of the strangest looking “tank” I’ve ever seen – apparently the former property of a criminal organization operating near the northern Mexico town of Ciudad Mier.

Makled Extradited to Venezuela with "Guarantees"

Colombian authorities handed over Walid Makled (aka “el Turk”) to Venezuela early Monday morning, ending months of speculation about whether the accused drug kingpin would be sent to the US or back to his native Venezuela. The reasons for the extradition to Venezuela are many, among them the fact that Makled faces murder charges there, in addition to charges of money laundering and drug trafficking. In the US, he would have only been charged with cocaine trafficking. The case has also been central to a thaw in Colombia-Venezuela relations since Juan Manuel Santos took office last August.

As has been widely reported in recent months (the AP today being the most recent), much of the significance of the Makled case has come from the suspected trafficker’s claim that he colluded with and bribed dozens of officials in the Venezuelan military. (The Venezuelan officials Makled has accused unsurprisingly deny those allegations). As the Wall Street Journal discusses this morning, critics of Monday’s extradition contend Makled’s claims will be little-pursued by Venezuela’s judiciary. They also say the Venezuelan government will try to prevent Makled from speaking out publicly during his trial.

On those matters, it seems we’ll simply have to wait and see. What is known so far is that the Colombian government held off on Makled’s extradition until it received a diplomatic guarantee from Venezuela saying proceedings against Makled would respect basic human rights standards, most notably his right to a fair trial. According to statements made Monday by Venezuela’s deputy minister of Citizen Security, Néstor Reverol, Makled will be granted “due process” and “will also have the opportunity to be heard.”

While unrelated to the Makled case specifically, Monday’s extradition comes as another set of uncomfortable allegations reappear around the Chavez government. The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London is set to release a 240-page book on the FARC today, entitled “The FARC Files: Venezuela, Ecuador, and the Secret Archive of Raul Reyes.” The book is based on the files retrieved from the computer of the late FARC commander, killed by the Colombian military in a controversial cross-border airstrike into Ecuadorean territory in 2008. While many of the documents in the book (and accompanying CD) have already been cited, there is some history here that Venezuelan officials are probably uninterested in rehashing. This morning the New York Times has the first news coverage to come out of the new book and searchable CD, highlighting what it describes as an often “cooperative” but also “rocky and at times duplicitous” relationship between certain elements of the Venezuelan government and the FARC going back as early as the year 2000.

The revelations come just weeks after the Venezuelan government detained Joaquín Pérez, a man whom Colombian officials allege to be a close ally of the FARC living in exile in Sweden. Perez has since been deported to Colombia at the request of President Juan Manuel Santos.

Today’s bullet points:

· Continuing in Venezuela, a meeting between President Hugo Chavez and his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff was been cancelled Monday, almost as quickly as it was scheduled. Just one day after media reports about the trip were released – outlining an itinerary that was to take Chavez to Brasilia, Quito, and Havana – the Venezuelan president said he’d be forced to postpone, citing an all-too-bizarre “wounded knee.” While Chavez and Rousseff met at the latter’s January inauguration, the two leaders have yet to hold official bilateral talks as was the quarterly custom during Lula da Silva’s tenure. By my count this is the third meeting between Chavez and Rousseff that has been cancelled in the last four months. The most recent cancellation came in late March when Rousseff postponed so that she could join Lula in Portugal.

· In Ecuador, on-going vote tallying shows much tighter than expected balloting during Saturday’s 10-question referendum. According to Reuters: “with 40 percent of ballots counted by Monday afternoon, the range of ‘Yes’ votes for the 10 questions was 44 to 49 percent compared with 41 to 44 percent for ‘No’.” Analysts do note that Correa’s margin of victory will likely grow as votes in certain rural areas where Correa’s support is strong have yet to be counted. Up-to-date vote totals from Ecuador’s electoral council can be found here.

· A day after the culmination of a four-day anti-drug war march from Cuernavaca to Mexico City, President Felipe Calderon says he would be willing to meet with organizers of the protest movement. However, the president indicated once again that he has no plans to change his current military-backed strategy against Mexican cartels nor did he address one of Sunday’s principal demands: that public security secretary Genaro Garcia Luna be replaced. New poll numbers released this week show Calderon maintaining an approval rating over 50% (54% to be precise). On questions re: the drug wars, fifty percent of Mexicans say the president’s efforts in combating drug trafficking have been “good” or “very good,” up from 46% in November 2010. Reporting from the LA Times and CS Monitor.

· Meanwhile, at the US-Mexico border, a gun battle on Falcon Lake between Mexican marines and suspected Zetas traffickers left 13 individuals dead Monday. The violent encounter occurred after marines discovered a drug camp on an island in the border lake. In late September of last year U.S. citizen David Hartley is believed to have been gunned down on the lake. His body was never recovered. AP reports.

· A group of Central American migrants freed over the last month by Mexican authorities say immigration agents are responsible for pulling them off a bus in Tamaulipas and handing them over to criminal groups. According to reports the kidnapped individuals picked out the immigration officials from photos provided to them by federal investigators this week. AP reports. On a similar note in Juarez, controversial security chief Julian Leyzoala said this week that he believes ¼ of the city’s police are colluding with criminal organizations.

· The New York Times and Wall Street Journal both look at recent efforts of Mexican regulators to break up billionaire Carlos Slim’s Latin American telecom empire. Last month Mexico’s antitrust agency fined Slim’s wireless phone company, Telcel, $1 billion while the Mexican congress also recently approved new antimonopoly legislation that, according to the Times, “raises fines for monopolistic practices and permits prison terms for executives who have been found to engage in them.” Last week, Mexico’s Supreme Court continued the assault, closing a legal loophole that Slim had used to prevent lower tariffs.

· Colombia’s El Tiempo speaks with former Colombian foreign minister Maria Emma Mejía as she officially takes over as Secretary General of UNASUR this week.

· Competing claims from the Cuban government and Cuban rights groups regarding the weekend death of dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto in the city of Santa Clara.

· The Miami Herald with a fascinating look at how Baby Doc has settled back into a quite normal life in Haiti.

· BBC and the Wall Street Journal last week report on new regional foreign investment numbers released by the Economic Commission for Latin America last week. The new numbers show foreign investment growing by 40% in 2010, with China leading the pack, particularly in Brazil where 90% of the country’s foreign investment goes toward extractive industries.

· And finally, El Faro’s Carlos Dada sits down on the apparently quite damp front lawn of Julian Assange’s Ellingham Hall residence in the UK for an exclusive interview with the Wikileaks founder. El Faro will become the latest local media outlet to begin publishing US diplomatic cables obtained by the whistleblower website next week.

Anti-Drug War March Concludes in Mexico City

Tens of thousands amassed in Mexico City’s Zócalo Sunday, the capstone to a four-day anti-drug war march that began in the city of Cuernavaca on Thursday. Much of the reporting over the weekend has focused on the man responsible for organizing the Mexico City march, Javier Sicilia. Sicilia’s son was killed in Cuernavaca less than two months ago – one of nearly 40,000 killed since late 2006 – and since then the poet and journalist has dedicated himself to organizing one of the largest demonstrations to date demanding an end to the country’s militarized drug wars. Mexico analyst and UNAM professor John Ackerman, himself a vocal supporter of this weekend’s demonstrations, is quoted in the Washington Post Sunday describing Sicilia’s organizing success as stemming from his capacity to unite a broad front – the upper class who are worried about security, the political left, the progressive wing of the Catholic church, trade unionists, and everyone in the middle who is, in Ackerman’s words, “just frustrated with the current state of affairs.”

Interestingly, the EZLN responded to Sicilia’s call for parallel demonstrations to be held in other cities around the country, organizing what looks to have been the largest simultaneous march in San Cristóbal de las Casas. As many as 20,000 people are said to have participated in that march – what the BBC suggests could be the beginning of a new Zapatista campaign.

In the Zócalo Sunday, Sicilia began to articulate the message of an anti-war coalition. He demanded the resignation of Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s director of public security. Proceso, which has excellent reporting on the entire march this week, highlights the movement’s demand for a new “social pact” (the details of which can be found here) and the nomination of a “citizen candidate,” unaffiliated with any of Mexico’s three major parties, for 2012 presidential elections. (Sicilia denies personal interest in the position). Proceso reprints Sicilia’s speech in the Zócalo Sunday, underscoring the call for some sort of electoral boycott should the movement’s demands go unmet.

Beyond Sicilia, independent journalist Kristin Bricker has excellent English-language reporting before and during the four-day march on other participants. La Jornada has coverage of the march in Spanish. And MexicoReporter.com has a video report, speaking with demonstrators as they entered Mexico City Sunday.

Bullet points from the last week:

· While results have not been made official yet, Rafael Correa has declared victory in the 10-question referendum vote held over the weekend. According to BBC, exit polls show the measures passing by somewhere between 51% and 57%. Just the Facts posts the eclectic 10 questions (with commentary) which were presented to voters Saturday. Reuters focuses on powers that will be granted to Correa’s to reorganize the country’s judiciary. Among other things, the New York Times looks at complaints from media groups about a few of the referendum questions.

· In Honduras, the Supreme Court ruled last week that it will dismiss all remaining charges of corruption against former President Manuel Zelaya. On Friday, the country’s public prosecutor Luis Rubí said he would not appeal that decision, although, as Honduras Culture and Politics notes, there remains some uncertainty about whether corruption charges could be re-filed at some future date. Last week’s decisions seem to open the door for Zelaya’s return to Honduras, although in a letter to supporters released Thursday, he said “persecution” would continue if he did so.

· AP and Reuters report that the Cuban Communist Party will begin public dissemination today of the economic reforms approved at the PCC Congress last month. Copies of the document will go on sale for one peso while an extended version explaining the new guidelines will cost Cubans two pesos. More on Cuba’s reforms from José Manuel Prieto in a long essay in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books. Also, a new report from the New America Foundation’s US-Cuba Policy Initiative on economic reforms. Excerpts at the Havana Note.

· Continuing in Cuba, AP reports on the death of dissident Juan Wilfredo Soto in the central city of Santa Clara over the weekend. Fellow dissident Guillermo Farinas says Soto was detained and beaten by state security forces during a weekend demonstration and blames security forces for the death. Unconfirmed reports from doctors say Soto died of pancreatitis.

· New poll numbers show Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori now in a statistical dead-heat just one month before second-round balloting in Peru. A Catholic University Poll released Saturday shows Humala polling at 40.7% with Fujimori close behind at 40.5%. An Ipsos-Apoyo poll released Sunday places Fujimori in first, at 43.8% with Humala close-behind at 42.3%. Meanwhile, reluctant Humala-backer Mario Vargas Llosa has gone all-in against Keiko Fujimori. In his Sunday column in El Comercio, the Nobel Prize-winning author accused the government of Alan Garcia of ordering the country’s state intelligence services to sabotage the campaign of Ollanta Humala. AP reports on the accusations.

· Latin America News Dispatch reports on Brazil’s decision last week to break off relations with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) after the regional body demanded Brazil halt construction of the $17 billion Belo Monte dam. In a 52-page response from the Brazilian foreign ministry, issued in late April, Brazil said it would continue with the project. Moreover, President Dilma Rousseff last week ordered Brazil’s envoy to the OAS, Ruy Casaes, to remain in Brasilia indefinitely.

· The Miami Herald reports on Arturo Valenzuela’s announcement last week that he will soon be stepping down from his position as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. Valenzuela will return to teaching at Georgetown University.

· IPS reports on next steps being taken by Bolivia at the UN to legalize the coca leaf.

· The CS Monitor reports on Brazil’s extension of civil union rights to gay and lesbian couples.

· The New York Times looks at the return of crime, corruption, and congestion to Bogotá.

· Miami Herald reports on Southcom chief, Gen. Douglas Fraser’s comments last week that organized crime and drug trafficking in Mexico and Central America represent the region’s greatest security threats.

· In other commentary, Dana Frank writes in The Nation about recent teacher demonstrations in Honduras; World Politics Review talks with CEPR’s Alex Main about the formation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC; and Ruben Martinez, in the LA Times today, on the need for US solidarity with Mexicans seeking to bring the drug wars to an end.

· Finally, the New York Times on the deaths of two major figures from Latin America’s cold war past. René Emilio Ponce, a Salvadoran military leader accused of ordering the murder of six Jesuit priests in 1989, died last Monday at a military hospital in San Salvador. He was 64. And in Argentina, novelist Ernesto Sábato, the man who led the commission that investigated crimes committed by the nation’s military dictatorship and produced the commission’s famous “Nunca Más” report, died Saturday at his home Buenos Aires. He was 99.